Hum cancelling Tele neck pickups ... What do you all like best?

[Cunamara]

I seem to recall Tim Lerch talking about a hum/noise cancellation pedal. Perhaps that's a better alternative than a pickup change. Has anyone tried that route?

The Hum Debugger apparently operates by generating an inverse waveform for noise such as 60/120 Hz hum, thereby cancelling it. It runs on AC current to achieve this and needs the specific power adapter. I have one that I used with a floating CC style pick up that was very prone to hum. It worked pretty well, it was not a 100% elimination of hum but probably 95%. I would still get a little buzz from fluorescent lights. The guitar is tone is pretty well spared by the pedal. Pat Metheny used one when he got his Slaman with the CC pickup and spoke very highly of it. My experience with a noise gate pedal was nothing short of abysmally bad and I cannot recommend them for any purpose.

Upside: if it doesn't work, you can sell it and proceed with the pickup swap. If it does work, you're set.

[jads57]

Direct from her website L-48TL – Bill and Becky Wilde Pickups

[steve burchfield]

Bill Lawrence really knew his stuff. The Big Deal pickups for teles these days in Nashville is Ron Ellis. But I think they are 400$ each and a 4 month wait. Thats way too much for me,but a lot of serious tone hounds think they are about the best out there right now.FYI They are voiced vintage 50s.

[steve burchfield]

In my guitar I thought the Barden bridge pickup was a lot better than his neck pickup. From everything Ive read today and my knowledge I think you might want to try the Bill Lawrence if you want single coil. Also different woods and bridges can make a big difference. My Nash tele came with Lawler Imperials Med. wind and they are fine for me. I think Klien and Fralin make good stuff. Lot of good quality out there its just what goes with your idea of a great sound.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

In my guitar I thought the Barden bridge pickup was a lot better than his neck pickup. From everything Ive read today and my knowledge I think you might want to try the Bill Lawrence if you want single coil. Also different woods and bridges can make a big difference. My Nash tele came with Lawler Imperials Med. wind and they are fine for me. I think Klien and Fralin make good stuff. Lot of good quality out there its just what goes with your idea of a great sound.

Interesting! My last Tele was a plain vanilla early ‘90s American standard on which I experimented with a few pickups. My favorite neck P/U for all around use turned out to be a Duncan Hot Rails bridge. I rarely if ever use the bridge P/U, so I decided to swap them for a fatter tone. It worked!

As I recall, Bardens were very similar to the Hot Rails I used. This would be my approach.

[D.G.]

Assuming neck pup only, if you're looking for something that has the flavor of a single coil but is humcancelling, I'd start with the Dimarzio Area T. Also of note is the Lawrence L-280TN. Both of these are pretty bright. For more money (as you can only get them in sets) don't discount the Fender offerings.

I eventually abandoned noiseless pickups in my Teles and instead went with more standard single coils. There really is no substitute for the real thing. However, I make sure that my Teles are humbucking in the middle position so I don't have an unusable guitar if the power at the gig is bad. My current favorite is a Fender Texas Special in the neck and a Fender Tex-Mex in the bridge.

[John A.]

I probably should have said before that I already have a 25.5" guitar with a humbucker so I definitely don't need another one. I really like the sound of the single coil in the Vola. I just fins the noise a bit annoying.

I seem to recall Tim Lerch talking about a hum/noise cancellation pedal. Perhaps that's a better alternative than a pickup change. Has anyone tried that route?

Electro Harmonix Hum Debugger. It works very well, for the most part. Under some conditions it adds a slight kind of metallic overtone to the sound. In general it's more noticeable with overdriven sounds, and I found it to be more noticeable with a Strat than P90s. On the bandstand I don't notice it at all, and it makes single coil pickups useable in rooms where they're unusable otherwise.

[Hammertone]

I probably should have said before that I already have a 25.5" guitar with a humbucker so I definitely don't need another one. I really like the sound of the single coil in the Vola. I just fins the noise a bit annoying....

Sheesh, I had to get all the way to post #20 to read this. In protest, here is my solution to getting a big fat noise-resistant neck position sound out of a tele:

[0zoro]

I was annoyed with the single coil haze which I finally rectified with 1. copper foil carefully but not beautify applied to the innards of the the cavities, 2. DiMarzio Area T. I now have a guitar that is absolutely dead quiet and sounds great.

[bobio]

Both works in progress...

Seymour Duncan '59 in the neck and 'lil '59 in the bridge.



Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck and Five Two single coil in the bridge.

[ESCC]

I have a Bill Lawrence L202TN at the neck and a twin blade at the bridge of my Tele, I highly recommend them.

[D.G.]

Forgot to mention Kinman. Expensive and you have to swim through the self-aggrandizement website, but they are good. I had a set in an old strat and they were the best of all the noiseless that were available at the time.

[swampguide]

For those of you who put in a hum-cancelling pickup, did you need to change the volume and/or tone pots or caps? (e.g. did you change the standard single coil 250K volume pot to a 500K one?).

[Cunamara]

With both the Dimarzio Area T and the Wilde L280TN pickups, I left the original circuit values in place (250K pots/0.047 cap). As far as I can tell, these pickups are designed as drop in replacements for the single coil pickups.

For my semi-hollow Telecaster with a PAF humbucker in the neck position, I used the standard 500K potentiometers and 0.022 capacitor. There is no bridge pickup in that guitar.

[steve burchfield]

There is a new Ron Ellis interview on Zacs Tru-Tone Show if anyone is interested.

[Dhango]

What about Lace Sensor pickups? T100 for the neck and T150 for the bridge. Could we call them a viable alternative?

[zcostilla]

I ordered my pickups from Mojotone but they haven’t shipped yet. I chose their Quiet Coil ‘52 Tele bridge and the Johnny Winter Firebird neck pickup. I didn’t necessarily need a him canceling Bridge pickup but wanted to be able to use a single set 500k pots without being concerned about not having an optional pot for either pickup.

[golem]

I've picked up a lot of Kinman pickups. They're the best I've tried. The best in terms of price are Lawrence's Wilde pickups. They can be a bit hifi full open but they really sound great as you turn down the tone knob. The keystones I had responded to tone control better than any other tele pickup I've tried.

[Zedism]

I use APG Tele pickups handmade in Poland, they're essentially t size humbuckers and drop dead gorgeous, fat tone. Best split pickup I've ever heard ad well (thanks to Kris for the heads up on these)

[Roberoo]

I bought a cheap set of GFS Neovin noiseless tele pickups and they are dead quiet. I can get a good jazz sound out of them with some amp tweaking. They can be pretty darn twangy though so they really shine best in blues and rock gigs. They are supposedly near field (don't ask me to explain) pickups that need to be close to the string to perform best. I experimented with pickup heights and found them anemic sounding if too low. The neck pickup is very bell like however there is a small dip in volume on the high E string. That can be compensated for with height adjustments. It may just be a problem with my individual pickup but certainly didn't bother me enough to send it back. The bridge pickup is great. At $30 a pop it could be a cheap experiment.

KP - Neovin Pure Vintage Neck Pickup - Kwikplug™ Ready-TL_NK

[0zoro]

No, same pots. I tested caps ranging fro.m 022 to some much larger figure, and found .047 caps sounded just right to my ear. Same conclusion as Cunamara had.

[jim777]

I have an Electro-Harmonix Hum Debugger pedal in my chain, so I didn't have to change any pickups on my Teles or Strats.

[lammie200]

I've picked up a lot of Kinman pickups. They're the best I've tried...

Forgot to mention Kinman. Expensive and you have to swim through the self-aggrandizement website, but they are good...

I have Kinmans in my Strat and JM partscasters. Hella expensive but they sound great IMHO. Engineered very well with all the issues about performance and fitment addressed.

...DiMarzio Area T. I now have a guitar that is absolutely dead quiet and sounds great.

Like I said previously I have a set in my Tele thinline partscaster. I really like the neck pickup. It seems to have a bounce to it that gives it some life.

I bought a cheap set of GFS Neovin noiseless tele pickups and they are dead quiet...

I put one of those in a partscaster build that went awry and I wanted to salvage it. I bought a cheap fretless neck and a GFS Neovin bridge pickup. It does sound decent and is fun for a night once in a while as a change of pace.

[blackcat]

I like the Dimarzio Area T that I have in my thinline build. Seem to be well balanced and versatile. They come with the wiring ready for a 4-way switch, too, if that is something that you are considering.

Concur 100%.

David

[blackcat]

I was annoyed with the single coil haze which I finally rectified with 1. copper foil carefully but not beautify applied to the innards of the the cavities, 2. DiMarzio Area T. I now have a guitar that is absolutely dead quiet and sounds great.

So have I.

David